China's Yunnan Province--Part 2
After Kunming and Dali, we continued west in Yunnan Province, on to Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Lijiang:
Lijiang---Beautiful buildings in old town Lijiang
winding pathway in old town Lijiang
Women of Lijiang in their traditional dress. Lijiang is a MATRIARCHAL society, with women in charge of business and politics, and men in charge of family and domestic affairs.
Old men of Lijiang, out for a chat. Notice the pet bird in the cage....this is a very common site in China
Birds for sale
shoppers at the main market in Lijiang
hmmm....what's this stuff?
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Tiger Leaping Gorge---Views of the gorge on our hike in. We hiked about 15 miles into the gorge, had a rest day at a small primitive lodge in the gorge, then hiked out on the third day. Right: The mighty Yangtzi looks pretty calm in this photograph, but up close it's very violent.
View of our path through the gorge (middle of image on left side)
my reward for the hike......HORRENDOUS blisters on both heels
Scariest Day of my Life: After a tremendous downpour the night before, our hike out of the gorge was a dangerous 10 hours of running the gauntlet of landslide after landslide. This one happened just after several members of our path had passed just below. (For perspective---that rockpile is easily 20 feet high)
More images of the landslides. Both had just happened that morning. At left: note man for perspective. This is the slide that happened just as our group was passing below. At right: Mudslides were also present at many spots on the path. Crossing over them took stamina, as we often sunk down to our knees.
And, in addition to rockslide and mudslides, we had to deal with newly washed out sections of the path. What a horrible, horrible day.
Lijiang:
Lijiang---Beautiful buildings in old town Lijiang
winding pathway in old town Lijiang
Women of Lijiang in their traditional dress. Lijiang is a MATRIARCHAL society, with women in charge of business and politics, and men in charge of family and domestic affairs.
Old men of Lijiang, out for a chat. Notice the pet bird in the cage....this is a very common site in China
Birds for sale
shoppers at the main market in Lijiang
hmmm....what's this stuff?
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Tiger Leaping Gorge---Views of the gorge on our hike in. We hiked about 15 miles into the gorge, had a rest day at a small primitive lodge in the gorge, then hiked out on the third day. Right: The mighty Yangtzi looks pretty calm in this photograph, but up close it's very violent.
View of our path through the gorge (middle of image on left side)
my reward for the hike......HORRENDOUS blisters on both heels
Scariest Day of my Life: After a tremendous downpour the night before, our hike out of the gorge was a dangerous 10 hours of running the gauntlet of landslide after landslide. This one happened just after several members of our path had passed just below. (For perspective---that rockpile is easily 20 feet high)
More images of the landslides. Both had just happened that morning. At left: note man for perspective. This is the slide that happened just as our group was passing below. At right: Mudslides were also present at many spots on the path. Crossing over them took stamina, as we often sunk down to our knees.
And, in addition to rockslide and mudslides, we had to deal with newly washed out sections of the path. What a horrible, horrible day.
